Electrical frequency changer



A118 30 1932 l o. P. MccARTY ETAL 1,875,250

BhG'I'RICAL FREQUENCY CHANGER rma sept. 29. leso 2 sheets-sheet 1 mgl. ngz.. his

Curro-'1t (Lcadin) Current (La H23. pag.4. /p

Inventors: Orin P. McCarty. Aram Boyaji'an..

Aug. 30, 1932. 1- ot P.'MccARrY 4im' AL 1,875,250

ELECTRICALFEQUECY CHANGER F11-ed sept. 29. l19:50 2 sneetssneet 2 Inventors'. Drin p. McCarty.

. Aram Boyay'ian. by 1.4

Their Attorney.

Panarea mesa-1932' i l i y i' y 1,875,250

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 0m P. HCCABTY AND RAI BOYAATIAN, 0F PITTBFIELD, ASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOBS T0 GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY, A CQBPOBATION 0F NEW YORK v ELECTRICAL FREQUENCY CHANGER Application tiled September 29, 1930. Serial No. 485,277.

Our invention relates to alternating curteristics of a saturable core reactor, a conyrent frequency converters or changers and denser, and a combination of the two conparticularly to static frequency converters. nected in parallel as in Fig. 1; Fig. 3 illusv It is often desirable to convert alternating trates two of the units shown in Fig. l con- 5 current at onefrequ'ency to a higher or. lower nected in series; Fig. 4 i's an enlarged view 55 frequency, so as to permit, for example, the of the volt-ampere characteristic of Fig. 3 interchange of power between systems havfor illustrating the operation 'of our invening different frequencies. This conversioni tion; Fig. 5 illustrates the effect of frequency is usually performed by rotating apparatus variations on the volt-ampere characteristic;

m such as motor generator sets. Such appa- Fig. 6 is a completed embodiment ofour inon ratus, to mention a 'few objections to it, is vention for changing the frequency of single relatively expensive, has unavoidable fric- Phase currents; Fig. 7 is a vector diagram tion and windage losses and is not inherently of the voltage relations occurring in Fig. 6; self startin Y Fig. 8 is a similar vector diagram-'for the em- :5 Afew dierent types of frequency convertbodiment of our invention shown in Fig. 9; 65 ers involving nomoving parts have been de- Fig. 9 illustrates a modification of our invenveloped up to the present time. Such .contion as embodied in a converter for changing verters are known as static converters to dispolypliase alternating current of one fretinguish` them from converters involving que-ncy to single phase current at another o movable parts and as a rule they are not open frequency; Fig. 10 illustrates a modification 70 to any of the above noted objections to the of our invention for convertin polyphase i usual rotatable frequency converter. It is alternating current from one requency to believed, however, that in the ast no static another. frequency onnverters have com ined the ad- Referring now to the drawings, Figs. l--tsL 'ze 'vantageous lfeature of reversibility with the "5,iI1Cll1SiVe, are provided for illustrating the'l ability to convert polyphase alternating curih eOIy 0f 'OperatiOn 0f Our invention'. In' rent energy at a given frequency directly to Fig. 1,1 and 2 are a condenser and a saturable A some even mltiple of this frequencypartic COT@ reactor, IBSPGCUVBIY, WhlCh. are C011- ularly double frequency or half frequency. nected in parallel so that a voltage Eo may :m Inaccordance with our invention we provide be applied aCIOSS them, F1g 3 illustrates tWO 80 such a static frequency converter. of the units shown in Fig. 1 connected in n object of our invention is to provide series.

a new and improved static frequency con- In Fig.6we have illustrated an embodiment ,verter. i of our invention which is adapted to change u, Another object of our invention is to prothe freguency of single phase alternating cur- B5 vide a novel static frequenc chan er which rent. n this fi re, a pair of saturable core is particularly adapted to ivide y two or transformers 6 ave two of their winding? 7 double la given input freguency. and 8 connected inf series to terminals 9 w ile A further object of our invention is to connected in parallel with each of these 'm provide a novel polyphase static frequency windings are separate condensers 11 and 12. '9o converter. Transformers 6 are similar and it will be as- Our invention will be better understood sumed that they have a vunit ratio of' trans` -from the following description when taken formation although our invention is not limin connection with the accompanying drawited to sucha ratio. Terminals 9 are connect- 45 ings and its scope will be pointedv out in the ed to a single phase system shown as com ris- 95 A appended claims. ing a synchronous machine 12. Each o the.

In the. drawings, Fig. 1 shows a basic unit transformers (i are provided withl se artt of our invention comprising a saturable core means 13 and 14, respectively, for p ucin reactor connected in parallel with a condensa magnetic bias in their respective cores an 50 er; Fig. 2 illustrates the volt-ampere characas shown' these means comprise direct current 100 windings which are energized by suitable sources of direct current such as ordinary batteries. The'other windings 15 and '16 of the transformers are connected in series opposition to the terminals 17 which connect to another single phase alternating current system shown as comprising a synchronous machine 18.

Fig-9 illustrates an embodiment of our invention in 'which polyphase alternating current at one frequency may be changed to single phase alternating current at a different fre-` quency or vice versa. In this ligure three transformers similar tothose of Fig. 6 have vthree of their windings 19, 20 and 2l connected in star to a polyph'ase alternating currentsystem shown as comprising a synchronous machine 25. Condensers 22, 23, 24 are connected in parallel with these windings.

The other windings 26, 27, and 28 of these transformers are connected in open delta to terminals 29 which are also connected in a single phase system shown as comprising a synchronous machine 30.

Fig. 10 illustrates an embodiment o f our invention for changing polyphase current of v one frequency to polyphase current of a different frequency. lThis modification consists essentially of three single phase frequency changers as shown in Fig. 6 which are connected in star. The three sets of series connected transformer windings with their paral lel condensers which are designated by characters 3 1, 32, and 33 are connected in star to a three phase alternating current system shown as comprising a synchronous machine 34 while the three sets of series opposition connected windings 35, 36, and 37 are connected in star to a three phase alternating current system shown as comprising a synchronous machine 38. Thus ycorresponding leg or line to neutral voltages on each side of the different frequency systems have associated therewith a same as the magnetizng fcurve of the core y material and is approximately a straight line for the lower voltages but quickly iiattens out as 4the voltageincreases'beyond a certain point. This is due to saturation of the core material which makes necessary larger and larger current values in order to produce equal changes in the magnitude 'of the flux. Although the actual magnetizing current of a reactor or transformer includes a power component for supplying core losses well as harmonic currents, the magnitudes of these l currents are usually so' small with respect to the quadrature lagging component of the magnetizing current that they have been neglected. Curve 5 is a combination of curves 3 and 4 is therefore the volt-ampere characteristhe gross apparent reactance of the combination for the current is still leading or capacitive but its incremental react-ance, that is, the .l

reactance for superposed lower currents is lagging or inductive. In other words, the reactance considered as is negative, leading and capacitive while the reactanceconsidered as Y e@ AI is positive, lagging and inductive. New, such a characteristic is a source of instability under suitable conditions in the same way that anarc whose incremental resistance is opposite to its gross resistance is known to be unstable., In the pa-rt B-D of the `curve, the current is lagging and increases in magnitude with the increases of voltage supplied. The combination of elements shown in l therefore acts like an ordinary reactance in this part of the curve.

Tf now, a voltage E0 is applied to the two sets of parallel connected condensers and reactors shown in Fig. 3, the combination may be operative at a point P. on the curve of Fig. 4. It will be seen that this point is on the unstable portion of the curve while each of the individual units will be operated at voltages El and E2, respectively, which fall in the stable part O -A'of the curve of Fig. 4. As the point Pis in the unstable part of the curve, a disturbance in the energizing circuit of the combination shown in Fig. 3 will start point P moving up Aor down along the curve until it reaches a stable part whenv it may overtravel and again swing'back introducing an oscillation and if the capacitive and reactive units are of the proper order of magnitude, this oscillation may be maintained permanently'.

Turning now ampere characteristic of the arrangement to Fig. 5 which shows the effect of changes in frequency on the voltshown in Figs. 1 and 2, the middle curve is the normal frequency curve while the outer dotted curve is the double fralue'ncy curve.

and thusv would tend to make the capacity volt-ampere characteristic flatter while decreases in the frequency4 increases the capa ci- -tive reactancepand therefore tends to make the condenser volt-ampere characteristic more nearly vertical. On the other hand increasing the frequency increases the inductive reactl ance of the reactor and thus would make the higher `frequency volt-ampere characteristic of the reactance fall outside the normal curve while a lower frequency would make the volt-ampere characteristic fall inside the normal curve.

If in Fig. v5, the normal frequency operation of the combination shown in Fig.A 3 is around point A on the normal frequency curve, the half frequency oscillation will be around point B on the half frequency curve. .There are two possible 'kinds of oscillation.

A'The first is where the capacitive and inductive reactance of each leg or half of Fig. 3, oscillate against each other. of oscillation of each branch is 180 degrees .from the oscillation of the other, the neutral N will oscillate without showing anyoscilla- `tion voltage or current in the supply conductors. With lthis type of oscillation bothvuni ts oscillate about the point B of Fig. 5. The

second kind of oscillation is where one'leg or branch shows a net inductive reactance while the other leg has a net capacitive reactance. In this case, the neutral N will oscillate without any oscillation in voltage lin the energiz- .ing conductors but there will be an oscillating "current, This is illustrated in Fig. 5 where, for example, one unit is oscillating about the point B while the other is oscillatingabout the point B", for B is in the condensive part ofthe curve, while FB"vis"in the inductive part of rthe curve. The distinction 'between those two types of oscillation is of no great -importance for one merges into the other.

Thus, ints B and B may both approach B an actually merge intoit. Thus, the first type of oscillation is a limiting case of the second type.

we have found am these' oscillations' may Y be loaded to a considerable extent and that )the oscillation frequency is most stable' in 'by the curve Fig. 5 where the half frequency.

If the phase the second or one-half harmonic.v

oscillation B" corresponds in voltage to the normal frequency point A. The permanence and strength of the half or double frequency oscillation is improved if the reactor cores are magnetically biased as by providing them witha directl current .biasing winding or designing them to have suilicient residual the fact that a magnetic bias in the core of a reactance or transformer distorts the sine wave of the magnetizing current into a wave having unequal positive and negative halves and'the'harmonic analysisiof such a wave shows that it contains even harmonics with a predominating second harmonic.V

Referring now to the single phase modification shown in Fig. 6. As will be seen,

this figure differs from Fig. 3 primarilyI in magnetism in themselves. This follows from that the reactors of Fig. 3 are provided respectively with inductively related windings, that is to'say, transformer windings 15 and 16 which are connected in series opposition. Thus, the reactors are replaced by two Winding transformers. In addition, these transformers have means for producing a lmagnetic bias in their cores. Assume now that in Fig 6 the power flow is from left' to right, that is to say, machine 12 is acting as a generator and machine 18 is acting as a motor. If, now,`condensers 10 and 11 are of the proper values, ,the alternating potential across terminals 9 will cause the meutral point -N to oscillate with the result that two voltages are induced in each ofthe secondary windings l5 and 16. One offthese voltages is at normal frequency, that is', the frequency of generator 12, while the other is of the oscil lation frequency. As the secondary wind- 5 ings are connected in series opposition, the

fundamental frequency voltages will cancel each other, while an oscillation voltage will I other, as d'o thenormal frequency voltages in thesevwindings.- This follows when it is ret membered that these oscillating'voltages are the result of the oscillations of the point N and consequently the magnitudev of the net oscillation voltage will always be twice the displacement voltage of the neutral point N.

.' The following discussion of Fig. 7 illustrates this for a particular kind of oscillation of the neutral but a consideration` f this figure shows that it is also true for any other kind of neutral oscillation. Th'e oscillation, voltage may even be greater inmagnitude than the normal impressed voltage because the oscillation of the neutral point need not necessarilv be in'phase with the impressed nori mal yfrequency voltage. vThus` in Fig. 7, the

horizontal vector E., represents the magnitude of thel voltage across the terminals 9 while point N represents the displacement of the neutral in one of its extreme positions.

of the neutral N and as shown, yit is greater in magnitude than the impressed voltage E9.

The vector diagram Fig. 7 is, of course, only for the case where the ratio of transformation of the transformers is unity.

The arrangement shown in Fig. 6 may change the frequency of machine 12 to either higher or lower values depending primarily upon the capacity of the condensers 10 and 11. A larger value of capacitance is necessaryfor a frequency reduction than for a frequency. multiplication. The function of means 13 and 14 is to produce greater stability when the frequency change is to either double frequency or one-half frequency. Our invention, however, is not limited to the use of special biasing means, and cores having residual magnetismmay be used to produce a similar result although the use of positive biasing means as shown is more reliable.

We have also found that the operation of the arrangement shown in Fig. 6 is reversible and that power may be made to iow from rightto left. The frequency ratio is governed by the magnitude of the capacities. Although it is not necessary, greater stability and reliability is secured if the low frequency side of the changer is connected to a source of the low frequency voltage'so as to definitely set this frequency. Such a source need not supply power to the load but in cases where the low frequency load is not a dynamo electric machine which is in itself a source of the low frequency voltage, it is desirable to "have such a source for steadying the freflow in either direction. quency ratios are obtainable'depending upon quency.

The principle of operation of the modification shown in Fig. 9 is similar to the operation of Fig. 6. Thus, assuming machine 25 to be a source, there is connected between each of its pairs of terminals an oscillation generator as shown in Fig. 3. As the secondary windings 26, 27, and 28 are connected in open delta, the three phase normal frequency voltages will cancel out to zero while the oscillation frequency voltage will be tripled and will appear across the terminals 29. This is illustrated in Fig. 8 where E26, E27. E223 have a vector sum of zero while the voltages EZG, E27, Ezg have a vector sum of E20 which is three times the magnitude of the neutral shift. The arrangement shown in Fig. 9 is reversible and power may be made to Also various frethe magnitude of the parallel capacitors, the ratios of 1:2 and 2:1 .being particularly stable when the cores of the transformers aereas@ voltage on the input side is changed to a different line to neutral voltage Je put side.

Although we have illustrated Figfl@ n n connection with a three 'phase system, 1t will, of course, be obvious to those skilled in the art that it is equally applicable to any number of phases. I t will also be obvious to those skilled in the art that a star connection is not the only possible connection and that three of the units shown in Fig. 6 may equally well be connected in mesh on either or both their primary or secondary sides, without departing from our invention in its broader aspects.

Our inventionis not limited to connecting the capacitance of each transformer unit across its primary winding and it will occur to those skilled in the art that the capacitance might be connected across the secondary windings or it might be lumped together and put in series with the neutral or in series with the open delta-of Fig. 9 Without departing 'from our invention in its broader aspects. y

lt should be understood that the biasing means 13.and 14 of Fig. 6 are merely illustrative of biasing mea-ns in general. In actual practice the particular arrangement illustrated would probably not be used, unless there Was a high leakage reactance -be-V, tween the saturating windings and the other E05 windings, because the saturating windings' would probably act as short circuited turns. It may of course be assumed that there is a high leakage reactance between the saturating windings and the other windings of Fig. nl 6. Another way of providing effective biasing mea-ns would be to connect the saturatng windings in series opposition so that the induced alternating voltages would cancel each other.

While we have shown and described particular embodiments of our invention, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that changes and' modifications may be made without departing from our invention, and '120 we therefore aim in the appended claims to cover all such'changes and modifications as fall within the true spirit and scope of our invention.

What we claim as new and desire to secure 125 by Letters Patent of the United States, is:

1.l A static frequency converter comprising a pair of transformers each having two windings, one winding of each ofwhich is connected in series with the other, the remaining 180 on the 011twindings being connected in series oppositim i a pair of similar two winding transformers,

a source ofema means connecting corresponding windings of said transformers in series and in series opposition respectively, and separate capacitances connected in parallel with the windings which are connected in series.

3; A static frequency converter including a pair of similar two winding transformers, a source of magnetic bias for the magnetic circuit of each transformer, means connecting corresponding windings of said transformer in series and in series opposition respectively, and separate capacitances connected in parallel with one of the windings of each of said transformers.

4, A frequency changer including a pair of series connected oscillating circuits each of which comprises a ca acitance connected in parallel with a satura le core reactance.

5. A frequency changer including a pair of series connected oscillating circuits each of which comprises a capacitance connected in parallel with a saturable core reactance, and etic bias for the cores of said reactors where y the oscillation frequency of said individual oscillating circuits tends to be stable at an even multiple of the frequency of said series combination of circuits.

6. polyphase frequency changing system com rising, two polyphase circuits 'of different requencies, a plurality of saturable core transformers, a star connected network connected to one of -said circuits, each leg of said network including two windings of two different of said transformers connected in series, separate capacitances connected in parallel wlth each of said windings, the remain- I Ving windings of said transformers being con- 'nected in series opposition in airs corresponding to the serles connecte pairs, saidwindings which are connected in series opposition pairs forming the legs of a star connected network .which is connected to said other circuit.

7. A polyphaseffrequency changing system comprising, a pair of different lfrequency polyphase circuits, a plurality of saturable core transformers, star connectednetworks connected to each'of' said circuits, corresponding legs of said networks including respectively series connected and series opposition connected windings of two of said transformers, separate capacitances connect-- ed in parallel with each of said series connected windings, and a source of magnetic bias 4:foi\each of saidtransformers whereby the ratios of frequency of said circuits tend to be even. v l

8. A static frequency changer for changing polyphase alternating current at one frequency to single phase alternating current at a different frequency comprising a plurality of similar saturable core transformers, means connecting similar windings of said transformers in star and in series respectively, and se arate capacitances connected in parallel with each of said'star connected windings.

9. A static frequency changer for converting polyphase alternating current at a given frequency to single phase alternating current at either of two reciprocally related frequencies, one of which is twice the polyphase frequency, comprising a l plurality of similar saturable core transformers, the cores of said transformers being magnetically biased, similar windings of said transformers beingconnected in star and in series respectively, and separate capacitances connected in arallel with each of said star connected windlngs.

10. The combination with a source of alternating current of given frequenc of means for producing a frequency of hal said given frequency comprising a pair of oscillating circuits each including a capacitance and a saturable core reactance.

11. The combination with a source of alternating current of iven frequency of means for producing a load l .which is half of said given frequency comprising, a pair of series connected oscillating circuits connected to said source'of given frequency, each of said oscillating circuits including a saturable core reactance and a capacitance, and windings inductively related to said reactances, said windings bein connected so that the given frequency vo tages induced therein are in opposition.

12. A static frequency changer for changable oscillation frequency 

